The monitoring work within AMAP is based, as far as possible, on existing national and international monitoring and research programs, aiming to harmonize these to the extent possible. Each country defines its own National Implementation Plan (NIP) to meet the AMAP monitoring objectives. Monitoring projects are carried out within each of the participating countries and across borders under bilateral and multilateral cooperations. Efforts are made to harmonize existing and new programs with respect to methodologies and quality assurance.

An AMAP Project Directory of Arctic research and monitoring projects serves to describe many of the AMAP implementation plan activities and assist AMAP assessment experts in identification of data sources. The directory is open for input from all countries and organizations conducting research or monitoring in the Arctic. This directory is updated regularly to describe activities relevant to AMAP’s future assessment work.